Joaquin raps

Joaquin jumps, then falls

Three months ago, Joaquin Pheonix announced that he was retiring from acting and that his most recent movie Two Lovers with Gwenyth Paltrow would be his last. Casey Affleck, his brother-in-law, told reporters that Joaquin would be going into music. When I heard this, I thought, “well that’s nice – he has a band.” Not so. He has decided that his new career path is going to be rapping.

On Saturday, he made his debut at a Las Vegas nightclub called LAVO in a performance that mainly consisted of shuffling back and forth and bouncing stiffly with the beat. In still shots from his show, you can see that his pants have a huge hole in them near the crotch, although he is mercifully wearing underwear. Footage of this incredible event is above. At the end of the second video, he manages to trip and fall. Casey Affleck stood off to the left filming the whole debacle for a documentary about Joaquin’s attempt to make it as a musician. Even though Joaquim said last November that it’s Casey’s time to shine, he apparently wanted the younger Affleck to do a side project for him first.

It’s not surprising that people are questioning the legitimacy of the project after his awkward performance:

Affleck, who is married to Phoenix’s sister Summer, is filming a documentary to capture the actor’s transition to music.

But the ever-present cameras have left many wondering whether Phoenix’s foray into music is a drawn-out joke.

The scruffy star insists it isn’t.

“This is who I am. This is my story,” he told People magazine before the performance.

“Are there people out there who think I’m a joke? I’m sure there will be … I can’t worry about that.”

[from NY Daily News]

Who is his target audience supposed to be? Most fans of rap are probably not interested in anything Joaquin has to say. And what’s his message? It’s hard to imagine him rapping about girls and booze and partying, though I may be wrong. If I had to guess, I would probably say it’s politically oriented. You can’t really tell from the video what he’s saying. It’s also unclear whether the audience was really that excited or just very drunk. It is Vegas, after all.

The best part about this whole story is that Joaquin’s first album is rumored to be produced by Sean Combs/ Puff Daddy/P Diddy, as we reported on Friday. If that report is true, I can’t wait to see what kind of music they’re going to make.

[Thanks to The Superficial for featuring these videos]

Photo credit: WENN